Lennie Stratton WB

LET’S TALK PRICING… 👜

But not quite in the way you might think!

As hairdressers, we’re pretty good at checking what the salon down the road charges and how much a tube of colour costs. But are we always looking at the bigger picture?

Bear with me, because I’m bringing handbags into this! 😂

Take Mulberry, for example.

They’ve built a brand around craftsmanship, quality, heritage and knowing their customer.

Not everyone wants a Mulberry handbag. Some people love a designer bag, others couldn’t care less! And that’s absolutely fine.

But it got me thinking about our industry.

We talk so much about what we should be charging, but how often do we stop and think about the business we’re actually trying to build?

Who is our ideal client? What experience are we offering them? What do we want to be known for?

And then there’s the colour brand we choose.

Are we choosing it because we genuinely love working with it? Because it performs how we need it to? Because the education and support are right for us?

Or because of the price on the tube?

And let’s not forget our own expertise. If we want to be known for something, are we investing in the knowledge and skills to deliver it?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an affordable salon, a luxury salon or somewhere in the middle.

The cheapest product isn’t necessarily the most profitable, and the most expensive doesn’t automatically make it the best.

For me, it’s about everything working together.

Your clients. Your services. Your prices. Your products. Your knowledge.

They should all make sense for the business YOU want to build.

Because it’s not about being the most expensive.

It’s about being the right fit.

Anyway, just a little food for thought from someone who apparently thinks about hair colour while looking at handbags! 👜😂

I’d love to know — when choosing a colour brand, what matters most to you?

This is an interesting one.. an education business is just like a salon business..
we book our salons in our diaries, we plan, sometimes we travel and have to stay overnight and plan our private lives around it . We do it and we love it but last minute cancellations hurt our business just like yours.

Free education always comes at a cost to someone.

The best educators never stop learning — and the best learning happens when we share what we know. ✂️

A little cutting practice, a lot of questions and new skills to take back behind the chair. Helping other hairdressers grow is what education is all about.

I generally don’t use shade charts in consultations in salon but they are a great tool to teach. They have all the information inside. So you don’t have to remember it all.

However sometimes clients/models don’t bring in inspiration so it can also be handy to finger out what direction they want to go in.

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Woven strand by strand, in remembrance of all those who gave so much.

Today we pause, remember and give thanks.

Lest we forget.

A quiet moment between the busy bits.

The days can be full of driving, planning, setting up, teaching, packing away and heading to the next salon. But in the middle of all that, there are little moments to pause and think about how lucky I am to do a job that takes me into so many different salons and lets me meet so many brilliant people.

Being an educator isn’t just the session itself. There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What does a busy day look like for you?

I have been educating for 17ish years.. and I have three children, so attend many school parents evenings. My oldest is looking at college places. As a full time educator I teach ( I actually like the word coaching, but I’m not getting fancy today !) most days and when I’m not in salon I’m putting together education for salons. I don’t just teach the trends to gain followers, I help hairdressers understand EVERYTHING! Each session is tailored to help their business grow and build confidence. BUT guess what everyone is different and hairdresser don’t all fit in the same box we all learn differently we are capable of knowing what to do and we are passionate about our industry and guess what we need to make a living out of it too. AND YOU CANT JUST BE A GOOD HAIRDRESSER nowadays.. In those 17 years I’ve met many personalities all beautiful but if I’m telling them the information a 100 times and it’s still not landing that’s on me! I need to change the way I’m teaching it, I need to tailor my sessions to suit them and think of creative ways to bring things alive. So a variety of tools in one session to suit all needs is why prep is important and prep happens daily- and you have to adapt quickly too if you’ve never met them before.